WINTER PARK — To cart or not to cart? That was the question faced by the city commission during discussions of the city's method of residential garbage collection Tuesday.

On Jan. 7 the city began testing about 1,100 covered garbage carts in some residential neighborhoods. The 90-gallon containers are designed to be lifted and emptied by a mechanical arm on a city refuse collection truck.

The commission held a public hearing Tuesday to get comments on the program, which would cost the city about $432,000 to operate fully.

Some residents told the commission they liked the system because animals cannot overturn the heavy carts and they look better than garbage cans.

Others wanted to know how the city plans to pay for the new system.

''We're already paying a garbage collection fee. Will this cause it to go up?'' one resident asked.

City Manager David Harden said there are several ways to handle the cost. He said a homeowner could buy a cart for about $50 or pay $1 more on the $9 monthly refuse collection charge.

Harden said he is concerned that the city has not saved money on garbage collection during the trial period.

''I had hoped we might be able to speed up collection with the carts and thereby decrease the number of routes, which would cut our collection costs and provide a source of funds for acquiring the carts,'' Harden wrote in an April 22 memo to the commission. ''However, the trial period has proven that the one-man conventional collection system is at least as fast, if not faster, than the cart system.''

It takes the same time to empty a cart, whether it is full or nearly empty. Of 660 residents who answered a city questionnaire in early April, 632 liked the system. Of that number, 129 had some complaints, said public works director Jim Williams. Some said the carts would be too small when there is a lot of yard trash and others said older people have difficulty maneuvering the carts.

Twenty-eight people who responded did not like the carts.

Commissioner David Johnston said residents on his street were among those testing the new carts and he likes the system. He said that in the long run, there probably will be fewer workers' compensation claims because refuse collectors would not continually have to lift heavy loads.

However, Williams said the city would become more dependent on the trucks with the dumping mechanism because the carts are too heavy for a worker to lift. If a truck breaks down it would be harder to rent a replacement, he said.

Harden said within three weeks the city expects to get a new dumping mechanism to test on another truck. The commission extended the trial period another 90 days.